Rep. Muns to challenge Stiles for Senate seat

HAMPTON — Nearly a year before the election, Republican state Sen. Nancy Stiles has a challenger for her seat in Democratic Rep. Chris Muns.

Nick B. Reid

HAMPTON — Nearly a year before the election, Republican state Sen. Nancy Stiles has a challenger for her seat in Democratic Rep. Chris Muns.

Stiles, who's finishing her second term in the Senate representing District 24, said she learned via a fund-raising letter Muns sent to her last month that she already had an opponent, sooner than any other race in her career, which includes three terms in the state House of Representatives.

"Usually people announce May or June as the session is closing, just before file time," Stiles said. "Evidently, Chris felt he needed to announce early."

Muns, who is completing his first term in the state House and also serves as chairman of the Winnacunnet School Board, said he wasn't trying to make a "big announcement," rather focusing on doing his homework and legwork for the campaign.

The district include both candidates' hometown, Hampton, as well as Greenland, Newcastle, Rye, North Hampton, Hampton Falls, Seabrook, South Hampton, Newton, Kensington and Stratham.

Muns said he's very proud of what the House has accomplished this year "in reversing some of the damaging cuts that were made last time and moving our state forward again."

"It became very apparent to me fairly quickly we could have done so much more if the Senate was more interested in working with the House and with the governor," Muns said of his decision to run for a seat on the 24-person state Senate.

He said the small size of the Senate, compared to the nearly 400-person House, means a senator has a broader responsibility to do what's best for the entire state, compared to the House where "you can tend to focus more on local issues."

"One of the things I think is of concern to me is that we really need to start talking about and acting on issues that are going to have a real impact on where the state goes in the next several years," he said.

The state would do well to invest in its education, workforce, housing and health care, according to Muns.

"That's the conversation I think we need to be having," he said. "We need to start talking about what we can do and what we should be doing as opposed to what we can't do."

One of the things Muns said the state could have done was expand Medicaid coverage to a broader range of people and thereby receive $2.5 billion federal dollars over the first seven years.

Stiles recently came under fire for voting against a House Democrats' Medicaid expansion plan, instead favoring a Senate Republican bill which failed in the Senate. Stiles said she plans to continue working with fellow legislators to reach a compromise.

Muns said that money would have boosted the economy by funding nurses' salaries, doctors' salaries and hospitals.

"Those hospitals may then expand, so they hire construction workers. The nurse working overtime buys a pizza; that generates economic activity," he said. "That's $2.5 billion of economic activity that we've lost. We need to take advantage of opportunities like that."

Muns is the clerk of the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee. He served as the chairman on two study committees: the State Retiree Health Commission and another to study the Local Government Center, in addition to his membership on the Coastal Risk and Hazards Commission.

Stiles, on the other hand, serves as the chairwoman of the Senate Education, Health and Human Services Committee. She spent 30 years in the Hampton School District as the school nutrition director.

Of Muns' announcement, she said: "It is what it is. There's always competition. He'll run his race and I'll run mine."

Both candidates agreed that the district doesn't heavily lean toward either party.

"There are very conservative people in the district, but there are also some very liberal people in the district. It's kind of a mix really," Stiles said.

Stiles said she expects her constituents to judge her based on what she's already done for them.

"I can tell you something I've done for every single community that I represent," she said.

Stiles, who has previously sponsored bills designed to redistribute the state meals and rooms tax in a way that benefits tourist towns like Hampton, said judging by the conversational on the Hampton Board of Selectmen, a major issue in the election will be the way her town is compensated for the money it spends on state initiatives.

"I think I've worked to bring state money into Hampton," Stiles said, referring to recent improvements she secured for the North Beach seawall and infrastructure improvements on Ocean Boulevard.

Muns said just because the conversation is starting early about the election doesn't mean you'll start seeing signs on the side of the road or anything like that.

"I think it will be competitive and hopefully it'll be based on messages and visions for the future and I intend to get out there and just hustle like crazy," he said.

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